Goodbye Hello
by ryouko70
Summary: A very short, two-chapter story featuring Rorschach's death. I know there have been a lot of fics like this, but I hope you'll take a moment to read my interpretation of it. I rated it "T" for some slightly inappropriate words.
1. Goodbye

**I know this scene has been done to death (no pun intended...okay, maybe a little intended). Still I wanted to present my own version. This combines both comic and movie. The lines are from the movie (because I like the movie version of his death better than the comic version), but it mentions stuff that only shows up in the comic. Both of these chapters are pretty short. Anyway, enjoy!**

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"Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That has always been the difference between us, Daniel."

I looked at him, waiting for him to say something. Waiting for him to join me. I silently begged him to come with me. To help me tell the world what Veidt had done. _Please don't desert me again, Daniel. _I knew he couldn't see the pleading in my eyes, but I still hoped he would somehow feel it and follow. But he didn't. He just stood there staring sadly at me. Disappointed, I adjusted my collar and walked out into the snow.

I hadn't gotten very far when I saw Dr. Manhattan, standing between me and the Owlship. I felt my body tense up. I couldn't stand to look at him. He was just as bad as Veidt! He could have stop it, but he didn't! He let this happen! He let those people die! True, there were scum among them, but most of them were innocent! Men. Women. Children!

"Out of my way. People have to be told."

_They have to know what monsters you are! _

"You know I can't let you do that."

He allowed children to die! Veidt killed children and this...man let him do it!

"Suddenly you discovered humanity?" _CHILDREN!_ "Convenient."

I saw him momentarily look behind me and I knew Daniel was there. I didn't want him to see what going to happen, but I couldn't bring myself to send him back inside. Daniel didn't know what was coming, but I knew. I knew I was never making it back to New York. But I was going to leave on my terms. I removed my hat and face. I wanted the blue man to see the real me. I wanted Manhattan to see who he was going to kill.

"If you cared from the start, none of this would have happened."

He looked at me for a few moments with those emotionless glowing eyes. Though for a moment, they didn't seem so emotionless. I could have sworn I saw sadness. I wondered what caused this sudden emotion in this cold being. Not that it mattered. It changed nothing. It wasn't going to bring back those lives. And it wasn't going to save mine.

"I can change almost anything, but I can't change human nature."

"Of course, you must protect Veidt's new Utopia. What's one more body amongst foundations?"

_Forgive me, Daniel. I can't live in this new world of yours. The new world that you agreed to._

I couldn't live in a world where killing children was accepted. I remembered the face of Mrs. Shairp's little boy as he looked up at me. Tears and snot were running down his terrified face. It reminded me of me whenever my mother was in a bad mood. He and his siblings didn't deserve to die. Not even their whore of a mother deserved to die like that.

Faces came to my mind. Not only the faces of Mrs. Shairp's children, but the other children in my building. The children who ran around my neighborhood. The boy who sat, day after day, at the newspaper stand reading his pirate comic. All of them, and so many more, wiped out in a heartbeat. I felt tears coming to my eyes.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" I felt my heart rate go up. Even though I wanted this, even though I had never feared death during all those years of fighting criminals, I could feel the fear now. But I couldn't back down now. I couldn't go on living when millions were dead. Millions that I couldn't save. I couldn't save even one life. Just like Blaire Roche. I felt my throat clench. "Do it."

I watched a subtle change come over his face. _No! Don't you dare pity me! You didn't pity the millions of people you helped kill! You didn't pity the children who died today! So don't you pity me!_

"DO IT!"

I saw him raise his hand. I should have sent Daniel back inside. I should have somehow spared him this. In that moment before the pain, one last thought raced through my head.

_Goodbye, my friend._


	2. Hello

"Hello, Mr. Kovacs."

Nobody ever called me Mr. Kovacs. People called me many names; Terror of the Night, Rorschach, Kovacs, Whoreson, Ugly Little Bastard, Walter, You, but never _Mr. _Kovacs. I wondered if maybe I was hearing things. Considering all that had happened the last couple of days, it was very possible that I hallucinated the words. My eyes were still closed, and I could feel the ground under my back. There was light on my face; I could see it through my eye lids. Something wasn't right. There had been a flash of blue light and a brief moment of intense pain. Like I was being ripped inside-out. I remembered that, so it must have happened.

"Thought I was dead," I said, quietly to whoever might still be there. My voice sounded different, like it did when I was younger.

"Oh, you are, Mr. Kovacs." That voice belonged to neither Daniel nor Dr. Manhattan.

I opened my eyes. Everything was white which was hardly surprising given where I was. I turned my head in the direction of the voice and saw, at a distance, a little girl; brown hair pulled up into two pig-tails on either side of her head. She wore a t-shirt and shorts which was odd for the cold of Antarctica. Then again, it was odd for a little girl to be here.

"Come on, Mr. Kovacs. It's time to go."

I sat up and rubbed my chin in confusion, feeling stubble under my fingers. My fingers crept higher, till I felt hair. My face. My face was gone! It took a moment for me to remember that I had taken it off when I confronted Dr. Manhattan I looked again at the little girl. She could see my real face, but it didn't matter anymore as she already seemed to know who I was. But who was she?

Something seemed familiar about her. I was sure I had seen her before. But where? Then it hit me, painfully. Blaire Roche. The little girl I couldn't save. The case that changed me for good. The day that Rorschach truly came into being.

"So this is how it'll be," I said, giving a small bark of a laugh. "They send a demon in guise of the child I couldn't save to come take me to Hell."

The girl's head tilted to the side a little. Then she giggled. It was a sweet sound. "No, silly. You're not going there. I've come to take you to Heaven."

"Don't lie to me. Don't belong there. Done terrible things. Killed. Destroyed."

"True," she said, with the brutal honesty of a child. "But you have a good heart." No one had ever told me that I had a good heart. Not even Daniel, and he was the only friend I ever had. "You did what you thought was right. Now, come, Mr. Kovacs." She held out her hand, inviting me to come to her.

"I couldn't save you. For that alone, I should be punished."

"But you tried." There was a momentary look of sadness on her face. "I'm sorry my parents treated you badly when you told them."

"I deserved it. Deserved to be punished for what I couldn't do."

"And you've punished yourself enough. Now come on! We need to go," she cried, impatiently. Her hand still hung in the air, beaconing me.

I slowly stood and started toward her. But when I was almost to her side, something made me stop and turn back. Where I had been lying, there was a giant mark in the snow. Its formation was symmetrical. Like an inkblot in red.

It looked like a beautiful butterfly.

I started slightly when I felt a tiny hand slip into mine. I looked down into a pair of smiling brown eyes. The trusting eyes of a child. _Like another set of eyes I know_. She tugged gently on my hand, trying to get me to move. I turned away from the red butterfly and let her lead me to...wherever. I looked down at the little girl skipping next to me, hand still safely held in mine. "Am I really going to Heaven?"

"Oh yes, Mr. Kovacs!"

Pretty brown eyes. Like his.

"Call me Walter."

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**The idea for this story first came from a wonderful picture I saw on DeviantArt. You can see it here ( /d47uf4u). I hope you enjoyed this brief fic!**


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